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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-07-11, Page 1, ESIY/1"14'. Iwt • STABLISHLO ' N HURON PUBLISH,N, - ,1•4f1 Inside this week Pg. 7 Pg. 7 Morris-Turnberry clerk retires Area schools name Ontario scholars Pg.Holstein group holds Twilight Tour " Dumptruck original rg• 16 back on stage P -"," 10 Reviews from Blyth 18' and Stratford Watching grass grow The rain held off enough to allow horticulturalists an opportunity to visit many area gardens•last weekend. Gary and Marie Black of Clinton inspect the plants at Jan Vodden's Blyth property last Saturday, July 7 during the first Huron Stewardship Garden Tour. (Mark Nonkes photo) e Citizen Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Volume 17 No. 28 Wednesday, July 11, 2001 75 Cents (70c + 5c GST) Ambulance travel longer in N. Huron Huron E. passes budget It's official, taxes in the rural wards of Huron East will be rising. At the Huron East July 3 meeting council passed the budget that will see large tax hikes in the rural wards of Grey, McKillop and Tuckersmith. Owners of vacant farmland will face the biggest tax hikes. Little detail was available about specific percentages and dollar amounts. The process is very complex, Clerk-Administrator Jack McLachlan said. In a telephone interview Mayor Lin Steffler admitted a number of councillors had to sit down with treasurer Brad Knight for an afternoon to figure out how the taxation really worked. Knight is presently on vacation so was unavailable for comment. Residential homes in urban areas will be facing small jumps in taxes, with Brussels and Seaforth receiving the smallest hikes. The new tax rates are comparable to many other municipalities in the county. By Bonnie Gropp Citizen staff Plans for a skateboard park in Blyth hit another snag at the July 3 meeting of North Huron council. Clerk-Administrator John Stewart said he contacted the municipal insurance people because he had heard of increased liability costs. Information was included in council's agenda from Frank Cowan Company Ltd. There was no dollar figure, Stewart explained, because it would be different for each municipality. Also, Stewart said, because there have not been any major claims to this point there has been no precedent set as to what responsibility a municipality has. Risk management, however, would involve adequate supervision of the park, controlled access, appropriate signage, mandatory safety equipment, first aid, participant After a year of concerns expressed about longer travel times for ambulances because of amalgamation and moving of ambulance sites in central and waivers, regular inspection and maintenance and documentation. Stewart said he also spoke to the president of the lawn bowling club, which is adjacent to the proposed location for the park. "They think it would be a distraction to the lawn bowling activity," he said. Director of Recreation Facilities Dan Cousins had looked into the possibility of a mobile park, which includes a trailer. It costs $27,000 for the base unit, which could be moved to various locations in North Huron. For a trial basis, however, they would be looking at a trucking fee. Councillor Archie MacGowan questioned the remarks made at a previous council meeting when a delegation of skateboarders and parents attended to request funding. MacGowan, who wasn't present at the last meeting, said he thought the $10,000 the group requested from the sale of Blyth PUC had already been earmarked. southern Huron, figures from the first three months of operation show the longest response times are in the north of the county. Figures presented to county Councillor Jeff Howson said that was true, that there had been five or six specific groups or projects, then the balance was to go to the community centre. "I don't remember the word recreation being part of that and that was what I was trying to make them understand. I feel they have been misled." Referring to all the work needed on the Blyth arena, MacGowan felt there would be no money left for a park. Howson noted that council had asked for a site plan to be submitted which had not been done. Also Councillor James Campbell said council had requested bylaws from the group and these too had not been handed in. MacGowan also noted that there would be a dollar value involved in running the park. There was concern as well about usage. Stewart said he really didn't know how many skateboarders there council Thursday by Jon Hambides, the county's consultant in setting up its ambulance service, showed that the Wingham ambulance station had far more calls that exceeded the 15- were in the township. "I've never seen any in Wingham and there were only about four or five causing problems in Blyth. If there are very few is it something you want to spend money on?" Cousins said that the mobile unit would give them a chance to Lind out how many would be interested. However, Councillor Arnold Taylor cautioned that this might not be indicative of the real number as some may turnout just because it's new. Campbell agreed saying he would be afraid of putting money into a fad that would be gone in a couple of years. Deputy-Reeve Murray Scott however, said he would be in favour of trying the mobile unit. Also, Cousins added that it can generate advertising revenue while the trailer can be used for other purposes. Cousins is gathering more information and will report back to council at the next meeting. . minute travel time that was the county's goal for high-priority calls than any of the three other stations. Hambides hastened to say that the longer travel times in the north were not the fault of paramedics at the Wingham station. "We're really pointing out that the Wingham paramedics go ahead quietly doing the best job they can under the circumstances," he said, pointing.out there are long distances between ambulance stations in the northern part of Huron and southern part of Bruce. Neil Rintoul, from Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh, agreed, saying that for the Lucknow area, the Wingham station is still much closer than the nearest Bruce County station in Kincardine. Warden Norm Fairies said in areas of Howick, three ambulances — Wingham, Listowel and Palmerston — are all some distance from local residents. Hambides said council should continue to look at how the northern part of the county could be served better but there's no pattern evident. Many of the calls exceeding the county's 15-minute target are outside of Huron (the time is set for calls within the county), but there were still 20 over-target within Huron. But projected for a year it would mean only 60-80 calls a year and, even if a pattern was detected, it would not be cost efficient to set up another ambulance station, he said. Ambulance stations in Goderich, Clinton/Seaforth and Exeter had few calls that exceeded the 15-minute target and those were generally in response to car accidents outside the normal coverage area (one Exeter ambulance went to Goderich). In a few instances bad winter weather also slowed response. In the southern end of the county where the controversy has been most heated following the county's decision to close the Dashwood and Zurich stations and consolidate in Exeter, average response time actually went down dramatically because the majority of calls are in Exeter and the new location shortened responses. Howver Paul Klopp, councillor for Bluewater, said figures showed response times had definitely increased for residents along the lakeshore, even if the number of people involved was fewer than the number in Exeter. "You can't say there are only 10 calls," he said. "They're still people." While the consultant provided cold facts, he said, "It's up to us to realize it's not just dollars and cents. If we have to buy another ambulance, maybe we have to look at it." Hambides pointed out, however, it's not the price of an ambulance that increases costs- but the cost of salaries for paramedics to staff it. He estimated it would likely cost $250,000 a year to add an ambulance station to shorten responses to either the lakeshore area or the county's northern extremities. Even then, he said, that ambulance would likely spend most of its time being called back into areas of greater population density. Skateboard park hits new snag